Two into One - Can McLaren manage a championship fight between Norris and Piastri before sparks fly?

Four races into the 2025 Formula One season and already a picture has developed of what lies in store across this long, 24 race season. It's very clear that McLaren has the most competitive car. This was expected, so whilst Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing continue to mix it towards the front of the field, often circuit or weather-dependent, three of the first four races have gone to the papaya-coloured cars.

The big talking point from this early part of the season is that we have a fascinating intra-team battle developing between the McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Whilst much of the preseason media coverage suggested Norris was this year's championship favourite, it soon became clear that Piastri was not entering 2025 with any thought to play second fiddle.

At the opening race in Melbourne it was Norris who claimed pole position with Piastri joining him on the front row, and although Norris converted that into a win, both he and Piastri suffered off track excursions with Piastri coming off worse, continuing the ill luck of Australian drivers in their home race. But we had seen enough to know he was not going to be a walkover.

Piastri has since taken two victories, most recently with a dominant performance in last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, and you can sense the shift in paddock sentiment towards Piastri. Norris may lead the World Championship for Drivers, but Piastri is only three points adrift and leading 2-1 on victories.

Norris is an extremely quick driver, now hugely experienced as well, and the McLaren team has very much forged its new-found competitiveness around him. However, Piastri brings with him a reputation for being somewhat psychologically tougher, his approach defined in no small part through his management by Mark Webber. F1 fans will remember that Webber did not much enjoy being positioned as a number two driver to Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing, and Mark will be urging Piastri to hold nothing back in his drive to assert superiority in the team.

One of the frequently asked questions about running a Formula One team is how you can possibly manage two competitive drivers chasing the same winning goals. It is not easy. There are numerous examples of occasions when teammates became arch rivals, often to the detriment of their teams with on track clashes and scoring points off each other, handing the advantage to rivals. The most recent example was, of course, the sometimes-bitter rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes which the team’s technical director James Allison has admitted was destructive.

In some ways the best way to look at a pair of Formula 1 drivers going for victory is that it’s akin to two senior salespeople going after the same deal. Ultimately, it just isn't going to work, they are going to get in each other’s way. You have to allow one to focus on clinching the deal, which means asking the other to take a step back.

This remains a much-discussed topic in Formula 1 circles with some believing that it is best to have two number one drivers, as is the case at Ferrari with Britain's Lewis Hamilton and Monaco’s Charles Leclerc. That’s always an easy view to take when the drivers concerned are not actually fighting head-to-head for the World Championship.

McLaren, with the fastest car, have the opportunity to win both the World Championship for Constructors and Drivers this year. The big question is whether the team’s leadership can begin to manage the internecine rivalry which is already bubbling to the surface.

Formula 1 has a habit of resolving these matters when the two drivers end up fighting over the same piece of tarmac. One will win, the other has to give way. That is the point at which you find out whether the team has truly covered off all of the eventualities and secured the drivers’ buy-in. If you leave it to the guys behind the wheel, history tells us that they will ultimately act selfishly.

That's when the fireworks start.

- Mark Gallagher, Performance Insights